“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Amen!

Ashley and her husband are expecting their fourth baby, a little green bean! 🌱 (Although they only need help finding a boy name.) This wee one joins big sibs:

Micaela Ashley (“after St. Michael. Originally it was supposed to be Micaela Immaculata but as my husband was literally filling out the birth certificate he changed his mind and begged me to have my name as the middle name, I have regretted losing Immaculata ever since!“)

Dakota Grace (“We both always liked this name, it was a little outside the box, and named after my grandmother.”)

Kolbe James (“We have had a strong devotion to Maximilian Kolbe through our marriage and chose his surname as a first name.”)

What a fun set! I love all the faith connections intermingled with personal taste, great job! I’m also so interested in their change from Immaculata to Ashley as Micaela’s middle name — I’m all sweet on this couple over that! Ashley for being so sensitive to her husband’s preference, and her husband for so much wanting his wife’s name as part of his daughter’s. 💕

Ashley writes,

“We tend to have different tastes in names and we can’t seem to agree on one this time around. We ‘think’ we have our girls name, but can’t seem to find a boys name we both like equally. My husband really likes Irish names, we want a Catholic Saint to be the inspiration for the name also.”

Names they’ve considered so far for boys:

Finn/Finian
Fulton
Ignatius (Nash)
Samuel
Nathaniel
Zeke
Jonathan
Blaise (“This was my favorite boys name but my husband veto’d it because he said a Firefighter can’t have a son named “Blaze” because all the guys at work would make fun of him ☹ “)

So first off, I’m so sorry Blaise is off the table! I’d actually find Blaise simply perfect for a firefighter’s son! It sounds fiery AND it’s a saint’s name—perfect! 🔥

I do see the Irish feel Ashley’s hubs likes in Finn/Finian, Fulton, and Keira (and I actually think Fulton’s an amazing brother name for Kolbe in that it’s a surname [it was Fulton Sheen’s mom’s maiden name] and specifically and strongly tied to one particular saint. I did a post recently on Fulton nicknames that might be helpful; be sure to read the comments too, they were awesome!), as well as a biblical feel (Samuel, Nathaniel, Zeke, Jonathan, Veronica), which has a bit of overlap with a country & western feel (Dakota, Nash, Zeke). I used all these feels when trying to come up with new ideas for Ashley and her hubs.

Even still, this was quite a challenging consultation! I love that their taste is so eclectic, but it does make me wonder if any of my ideas are good ones or if they’re totally off the mark. I can’t wait to hear what you all think and what your ideas are for this little one!

You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up the names the parents have used and like/are considering in the Baby Name Wizard as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. Using that research, and my own ideas, I came up with these ideas for Ashley and her hubs:

(1) Cashel
This was half inspired by her husband’s love of Irish names and half inspired by Nash as a nickname for Ignatius. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, “Cashel is offbeat and unusual but I love it so much for its meaning — ‘The Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasion’ and it’s ‘reputed to be the site of the conversion of the King of Munster by St. Patrick in the 5th century’ — and for its possible nickname of Cash. Swoon!!!” Cash also has a Johnny Cash feel, which taps into that country & western thing, and Cashel is a place name like Dakota and Avila. All in all, a fun pick!

(2) Ronan or Rohan
St. Ronan is a great Irish saint with a cool name, I love it for this family! A similar name is Rohan (you could say it RO-han or RO-wen), which isn’t a saint’s name but it is an Irish surname, which ties it in with Kolbe and Fulton being surnames, and it can be a fun nod to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (Tolkien’s not a saint, but he was a great Catholic writer) where it’s a place name, which is a nice connection with Dakota’s name, as well as Avila.

(3) Beau
I was interested in the names that were similar in style to Blaise, since Ashley loves Blaise but her husband feels it’s unusable. Beau was one that I thought they might like—it’s got a country-western feel and also sounds sports-y like Bo Jackson. It’s not a saint’s name as far as I can tell, unfortunately, but a great saint middle would make up for that nicely—it’s a short name so it can take a longer middle name, like Beau Ignatius, Beau Nathaniel, or Beau Jonathan.

(4) Xavier
Xavier is also a style match for Blaise, and a saintly surname like Kolbe and Fulton, and it’s also got a great Z sound, like Blaise, Zeke, and Zelie. I also think it goes really well with Micaela and Dakota!

(5) Levi
Levi is biblical, certainly, but it’s also got a distinct country & western feel, and I really like that both of those styles converge in this one really cool name that also has a prominent Z sound.

(6) Isaac
Finally, Isaac, a nice style match for all the biblical names and super saintly as well—I love St. Isaac Jogues. It also has a great Z sound like Blaise, Zeke, and Zelie, and Zac and Ike are both traditional nicknames for it that are really cute.

And those are my ideas! What do you all think? What would you suggest for the little brother of Micaela, Dakota, and Kolbe?

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34 thoughts on “Baby name consultation: Boy name needed for No. 4 in a fun, saintly sibset”

Just right off hand I would suggest something with a K sound in it, as all the other siblings seem to have it in a subtle way. I think it ties them all together. I like how it is all different (placement of the sound in the middle for the girls, but first for the boy or that one is made with a C rather than a K) and not blatantly obvious (like Kelly, Karen, Katie would be).

Another, more unusual option, would be Tolton, after Servant of God, Fr. Augustine Tolton. It isn’t Irish and he isn’t a saint yet, but it sounds kind of cool, and I bet that he would pray for the baby.

For an inarticulable reason, Sebastian is in the same-feel category as Blaise to me, maybe because they share many letters. I like the sound of Xavier or Isaac at the end of this set from your suggestions.

I just love all of your suggestions for this family, Kate! Very eclectic and super awesome!

All I can say is, I hope they use one of these! Cashel! Swoon! Ronan! My favorite Irish name! Beau! I only know one Beau, an adult in a similarly eclectic and saintly set of 6 siblings, so it seems like a perfect fit for this family, too! Xavier! Gorgeous choice—for some reason I feel like it matches so well with both Dakota and Kolbe! Levi and Isaac! Two really rad Old Testament names that really aren’t overused (like some OT names). Wow, I think you hit it out of the park with these ideas! ❤❤❤

I love their choice of Finn, but when I saw your suggestion for Isaac, I knew it had to be! Maybe Isaac Samuel. And its a bit of a stretch, but maybe use nickname Zeke for it? Isaac is a fav of mine all on its own though!
I really like Cashel, but not sure about an immediate sib set of Kolbe and Cash. And the suggestion for Sebastian in place of Blaise was really great!

Ohhhh wow that’s a good thing to be aware of! I think since middle names are not usually said with the first, it’s probably fine, but if they intended to do “Charlotte Anne” as a double first name I would want them to be aware of that possibility!

I really like Luke for them (or Lucas). They could also do Lucian if they wanted a more Irish feel. I also like Kevin, although I don’t know if they care about shared initials. Also Patrick, Atticus, Clement, Casper, Crispin, Victor, Rocco, and Joachim. All saintly and with the K sound they seem to like.

Ooh Bl. Robert Sutton, I’ve never heard of him! Thanks for this! My only hold-up with Neri is that it reminds me of Emperor Nero … is that weird? Does anyone else think of that? Otherwise it’s a great name and I love St. Philip Neri!

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"Choose your names in a joyful way. / Think of the Saints and holy things, / And then just watch how your heart sings / When the name meant for you to choose / Comes to your mind, as you do muse!"
~ name wisdom from my Mom, an Irish poet

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